Pubdate: Sat, 18 Aug 2007
Source: Florida Times-Union (FL)
Copyright: 2007 The Florida Times-Union
Contact: http://www.jacksonville.com/aboutus/letters_to_editor.shtml
Website: http://www.times-union.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/155
Author: Wayne Ezell, The Times-Union
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/racial.htm (Racial Issues)

WAS 'NO-SNITCH' CARTOON RACIST? EDITORIAL EDITOR REGRETS TERM

Some readers were shocked and angered by a Friday editorial page 
cartoon depicting a black man with a smoking gun in his hand standing 
over a bullet-riddled victim.

"I didn't see nuttin'!" said a little girl standing nearby. "Now 
that's a good little ho!" said the gunman. Both the shooter and the 
child wore T-shirts saying "Don't Snitch!"

The cartoon carried a caption: "The new rule of Law!" A billboard in 
the background depicted more black characters under lyrics, "Rap your 
life away."

Expressions of outrage came quickly, including from the local 
president of the NAACP.

"Highly offensive and racist," is how Charles Anderson described the cartoon.

It was wrong to suggest that the growing "Don't snitch" phenomenon is 
limited to the African-American community and use of the terms "ho" 
and "nuttin' " were over the top, according to Anderson. Phyllis Hall 
said everything about the cartoon was offensive.

"Most of us are tired of the crime," she said of Duval County's 
murder rate, which is the highest in the state. "But I don't think 
demeaning the culture of a race of people is necessary."

She wanted to know who was responsible for allowing the cartoon to 
into the newspaper.

Mike Clark, the editorial page editor, reviewed and approved the 
cartoon by longtime Times-Union cartoonist Ed Gamble.

"Using the word 'ho' was bad judgment, and I regret that I did not 
edit it out,' " Clark said.

The cartoon came after police assertions that a "Don't snitch" 
culture has impeded efforts to solve crimes in Jacksonville. A CBS 60 
Minutes segment last Sunday focused on the growing problem, 
especially in inner-city neighborhoods, and how some rap artists have 
encouraged it.

"The object of the cartoon was to comment on the rise of a 
no-snitching culture, something that is widely in the news today," Clark said.

"Cartoons, by their nature, take broad strokes that can be 
interpreted differently," he said. "There was certainly no intent to 
offend the many law-abiding Jacksonville citizens."

Gamble conceded that the term "ho" is demeaning to women, but added, 
"I was making a point that rappers are demeaning to women."

He is troubled by the influences of such things as offensive rap 
lyrics, drugs and no-snitch messages, Gamble said, and his commentary 
is meant to focus on those issues.

Among the outraged was Juan Gray, chairman of the Jacksonville 
chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

"This does nothing to mend the divide that seems to be growing wider 
in our community," he said.

The NAACP's Isaiah Rumlin's objections focused on stereotyping and 
use of the offensive term, but he said the subjects of no-snitching 
and rap lyrics are fair game for commentary.

"I know there's a certain segment in our community that wear the 
T-shirts and so forth," he said. As for lyrics that might encourage 
not cooperating with police, "We're all trying to change those."

But Rumlin was also concerned the cartoon might reinforce a widely 
held - albeit wrong - notion in a city that he says is apathetic 
about its crime problems.

"This is stereotyping. In reality this is not just a black thing," he 
said of the murder problem. "It is a Jacksonville problem."

Rumlin also raised the question of how many people of color are on 
the newspaper's staff, asserting the cartoon may have been handled 
differently if the newsroom were more diverse.

While the newsroom has people of color among its writers and copy 
editors, and has one African-American columnist, no people of color 
are involved in the day-to-day operations of the opinion pages, which 
are separate from the newsroom.

"If an African-American had seen that before it was printed, it would 
not have been printed," Rumlin said.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom